Health Care- the Political Side

To better understand the issue of health care reform, having a background on the history of the situation is important.

Recently I sat down with University of Massachusetts Political Science Professor Jesse H. Rhodes to discuss the political history and its current implications as attributed to the Democratic and Republican sides.

-The roots of health care reform can be traced back to the 1935 Social Security Act when President Truman pushed hard for its advancement but was not fully successful.

-Next health care reform was advocated by President Kennedy and Johnson which brought about Medicare and Medicaid.

-In the late 1970’s Ted Kennedy took up the fight for Health Care Reform. But decided not to fight as hard as he could, gambling on a better congressional environment

“The push for health reform comes up ever 10 years,” explained Rhodes, “It has been a recurrent social reform for Democrats that has not been successful.”

The most recent health care debate has shown the revival for the Democrats push for exploring a public option. Democrats argue that government involvement in the private sector of health care would cover people not currently covered by health care and be a competitor to private insurers.

But a recent New York Times article shows that government insurance plan might not feasibly pass through the Senate. Senators including Charles E. Grassley of Iowa who disagree with the government public option said, “Government is not a fair competitor… a government plan will ultimately force private insurers out of business.”

Rhodes explained the health care issue as a supply and demand problem, “Liberals feel providers are not being efficient- it’s the supply side.” This means that doctors might be spending too much time on tests and other protocol in order to avoid malpractice.

“Conservatives think the situation is demand driven. Consumers are putting pressure on providers for driving up costs of medicine.”

Both sides think that consumers are taking more than they need. “How you would structure the public option is off of ideology,” notes Rhodes.